MechWarrior 2: ATi 3D Rage Edition

[n_w95482]

Some of you may have seen the original, software rendered version of MechWarrior 2 (which I have at home ) but I doubt many have seen the 3D accelerated versions, of which there are 6 total (S3 ViRGE, Matrox Mystique, 3Dfx Voodoo, ATi 3D Rage, NEC PowerVR, and Quickdraw 3D Rave (Macintosh)). The game was made back in the days when everyone had their own proprietary API that wasn't compatible with another manufacturers and when DirectX sucked . This Sony PC (specs below) came bundled with the 3D Rage version so I would like to present the members of NGEmu with some old school hardware 3D accelerated pictures of a classic PC title .

Pictures 1 and 2: FMV introduction. I forgot to turn off System Monitor .

Picture 3: The main menu. To the left is Clan Jade Falcon, the middle is Trials of Grievance (skirmish mode basically), and to the right is Clan Wolf. Each clan has different missions which are very fun (and difficult ).

Picture 4: You can have multiple names so you can be on one part of the game and a friend can be on a different part .

Picture 5: The mech lab. This is where you are able to pick and customize each mech before the beginning of the mission (which is a wise thing to do). You can spend quite a lot of time tweaking your mech for each mission. The game saves any changes you make so you can always go back.

Picture 6: Mission briefing. They provide a good amount of information for each mission so you know exactly what you're going to do (and some cool background info).

Picture 7: One of the mission loading pictures (there's a couple others).

Pictures 8-12: In game. The 3D Rage version runs at 512x384 and cannot be changed (other versions can run higher). I have textured skies, textured ground, and bilinear filtering enabled. The 3D Rage I chip (which this PC is equipped with) has no Z-buffer so you WILL see textures jiggle around like a PlayStation game. Picture 9 is of the satellite view and 10 is of the image enhancement view (handy in dark/foggy/hazy conditions)

If anyone wants me to upload more pictures (w/o textures/BF), let me know.

Special thanks goes to N1ghtw0lf for turning the BMP's in pictures 8-12 into JPEG's .

Specs of the PC used to take the pictures (Sony VAIO PCV-90): 200 MHz Pentium I, 64 MB EDO DRAM, Windows 98SE, onboard Yamaha OPL3 sound, 2.37 GB HD, onboard ATi 3D Rage (2 MB).

[RF]

Wow, 7fps. Ownage. Good shots

[Strider]

*eek!!!* *starts giggling like a little schoolgirl* its t3h mechwarrior 2!!!!!

one of my favourite games of all time, i still say its got one of the best most fitting soundtracks ever, and it was a helluva lot of fun

[n_w95482]

Yes the music was awesome and it was quite fun. I'll have to try beating it properly (w/o cheats) sometime .

Reich: The game does run like crap with all the "eye candy" turned on. If I were to disable BF, the framerates would about double.

Edit: The movies are in 256 colors, as is everything in the original (software) version. I believe the hardware accelerated versions run at 16 bit color in-game.

[cooliscool]

Eye candy? I don't see any eye candy!

[n_w95482]

Originally Posted by cooliscool

Eye candy? I don't see any eye candy!

Compared to the original, that is eye candy .

Edit: Here's a GameSpot article that reviews video cards from the same time period as the 3D accelerated versions of MechWarrior 2. The only cards out of that whole review that don't have an accelerated version are the cards with the Rendition Verite chip

[Gamer1]

i have that game, came with my vaio pc back in 96-97 (can't remember which year, also came with wipeout, which was fun). i hate mechwarrior, such a horrible game

[n_w95482]

Originally Posted by Gamer1

i have that game, came with my vaio pc back in 96-97 (can't remember which year, also came with wipeout, which was fun). i hate mechwarrior, such a horrible game

This PC also came with Wipeout, but it doesn't run that great with the graphics options maxed out and the controls were weird.

[Razor Blade]

This game won't install for me at all I tried on 3 different machines running 3 different windows. You think they'll accept returns?

[n_w95482]

Originally Posted by Razor Blade

This game won't install for me at all I tried on 3 different machines running 3 different windows. You think they'll accept returns?

Do you have one of the 3D accelerated versions or the original, non-accelerated version? What error message are you getting? The 3D accelerated versions only ran on the cards that they were designed for as each card had their own API which was incompatible with other cards/brands.

[Razor Blade]

I have the original. Got it years and years ago. When I install it says the install was fine, then when I run it it says invalid win32 application or something along those lines. (been about 6 months since I last tried) :/

It's alright though, I have Mechwarrior 3 and 4 to play

[n_w95482]

Which file are you trying to run? Did you try running it under Windows 98?

[Razor Blade]

Yes. I tried Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows Pro and Home. I think the CD is just bad. Strange never-the-less. Maybe it has a hairline scratch that had an important file on it :/

[n_w95482]

Try running Mech2.exe and Mw2.exe. I can't remember which of them is the correct file .

[Zer0Soul]

*is ashamed at never trying a mechwarrior game*

May I burn for it, I know. I just never got around to it. I was more into Earthsiege, the knock off of MW, as well as the game G-Nome.

The shots are nice for the time. Maybe, I'll get around to playing them.

[n_w95482]

I used to have G-Nome a long time ago but it's been so long since I played it (1998) that I barely remember anything from it . I also have MechWarrior 3 (which I like ) and I've played 4 a little bit at a friend's house. It's definately a good series .

[n_w95482]

Some more shots .

Pictures 1-4: Turned off textured sky, textured ground, and bilinear filtering.

Pictures 5-7: Turned on textured sky, textured ground and BF are off.

Pictures 8-10: Turned on textured ground, textured sky and BF are off. If you look closely at picture 10 you should see some texture warping (no Z-buffer).

Pictures 11-13: Both textured ground and sky are turned on. BF is off.

[oddcam]

I have an NVIDIO RIVA TNT2 Model 64 video card. I want to get one of the special edition MW2 games (I had the ATI Rage one on my old comp), but I don't know which, if any, will work right on my current comp. Any suggestions?